Editorial Reviews

The most controversial movie ever made has finally arrived on DVD! Banned and heavily censored throughout the world, here is a film that surpasses its reputation as a shotgun blast to the senses. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST presents the "found footage" of four documentary filmmakers who experience brutal death at the hands of a savage South American tribe of flesh-eaters. This footage is so intense, so graphic and so unflinching in its realism that the director and producer of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST were arrested upon its original release and the film seized.

Widely acknowledged as the uncredited inspiration for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST has been both praised and vilified for its portrait of savagery. Ruggero Deodato's nihilistic masterwork critiques the implications of Mondo-style filmmaking, even as it explores the most disturbing extremes of cruelty and exploitation. Not for the weak of stomach, the film's horrifying power cannot be denied.

Grindhouse Releasing's 25th Anniverary collector's edition DVD stands as the definitive release of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. The deluxe 2-disc set boasts a brand-new, hi-definition digital restoration of the uncensored director's cut, an exhaustive menu of bonus features and sensational packaging.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

`Cannibal Holocaust' is widely regarded as one of the most intense, affecting horror films ever, at least amongst the sorta viewer who would actually have seen this movie. I'd agree with this assessment. This film seems slightly less well known than `Cannibal Ferox', though I can't imagine why. On top of being far better made, it's a lot more outrageous and offensive as well. So, if you've seen that film, and weren't particularly impressed, don't just ignore `Cannibal Holocaust'. Certainly, it's still got many of the flaws that come with low-budget horror film making, mostly being that the acting is often pretty amateurish and the dialogue fairly blasé. But, as H.G. Lewis said, no one ever walked out of `Blood Feast' because the police investigator couldn't act, and I think the same can be said of the guide or professor or whoever in `Cannibal Holocaust'. And, again, these are standard shortcomings of the genre. If you can't live with the acting in this movie, you shouldn't be watching this sorta movie in the first place. But, if you do like this kinda thing, `Cannibal Holocaust is about as good as it gets.

Now, lotsa cheap horror films are fun to watch: They have cool gore or nice atmosphere or camerawork or whatever. But few are really all that powerful or intense. `Cannibal Holocaust' is, partially because of how it is structured. The film concerns the investigation into the disappearance of 4 documentary filmmakers down in South America. This allows for a sort of dual narrative, as we watch a professor and some others go search for them, then, and find that they're dead, but that their film reels survived, and so we watch them during the second half of the movie.Read more ›

When "Entertainment Weekly" put out a feature earlier this year naming the 25 most controversial films of all time, there were only a couple that I hadn't seen. Of course, me being me, I immediately went out and bought those titles--one of which was "Cannibal Holocaust." Now I realize that any list of this type is somewhat arbitrary, but the DVD packaging itself proclaims this to be "The Most Controversial Movie Ever Made." Indeed, the film is made in a pseudo-documentary style that caused many to believe the atrocities depicted had actually happened. The filmmakers were arrested and required to produce the cast members (who had died in the film) to disprove the film's "reality"--oh, the innocence of 1980. Subsequently, the film was banned many places internationally (or cut up). Quite a history. Well, I've never been accused of skirting controversy--so I jumped into "Cannibal Holocaust" head first.

Often cited as a huge influence on "The Blair Witch Project," "Cannibal" is shot with hand held cameras and filmed from the perspective of the fictional filmmakers. Four documentarians enter the South American jungles hoping to locate and record footage of actual flesh-eaters that still reside in the modern world. Aided by local guides, they integrate with different tribes as they go deeper into their quest. And being modern white men and women, they go with their usual bravado and superiority.

Of course, the crew will meet more than they expect! An interesting aspect of the film is that the quartet of "heroes" are not presented in a particularly good light. No, they are modern "savages" who value those they encounter as less than human. Much of the film's nastiness comes from the white "protagonists" as they pillage, plunder, and assault the natives.Read more ›

Filmed in the deep, harsh jungles of Amazonia in 1979, Ruggero Deodato's cannibal tale is a gritty film that also has something to say about it's own excesses and extremes when taken in regards to the media and how it portrays violence.

Grindhouse Releasing's new October 25th release, which has been dealt with much critisiscm due to it's numerous delays, has had 8 printers worldwide refuse handling their artwork due to the supposed offensive nature of the inside of the cover art. This would not be the first time this film has been met with such regard; Deodato and company were originally hauled off to court to prove the all-to-convincing effects weren't real.

The film is purportedly banned in over 60 countries, and that simple fact alone has only added to it's notoriety; in 1995, Lucertola Media in Germany printed only 1000 copies of it's haunting, incredible soundtrack, which may be one of the best ever realized for this kind of film. The film itself has popped up in many countries, in a surprising amount of cropped and various forms, leaving some left in wonder and doubt as to what it's true uncut form really is. Many believed at one point there was a version including the infamous "pirahna baiting" sequence, but it has since been learned that scene was only photographed, and never actually shot.

There are two narratives which drive the film; it's second half takes on a pseudo-documentary style exactly as that seen in "The Blair Witch Project." This is also the most harrowing part of the film. It's first half consists of a New York City Professor who is sent to the jungles in search of four missing documentary filmmakers. He is led on this journey by a guide and a Yacumo prisoner, who "is like a passport into the green inferno.Read more ›

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That is incorrect. All of the releases are on two discs and have identical program content on those discs. The differences are in the packaging. The 25th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR'S EDITION was packaged in a deluxe, hand-assembled hard cover book like case with and outer slip cover. It was limited to... Read More